This invention relates generally to a coal-gathering assembly for a continuous miner, and more particularly, to an improved assembly for collecting and transferring coal onto a conveyor that delivers the coal rearwardly of the miner.
In the heretofore conventional continuous miner having coal-gathering arms at the front at each side of an intervening conveyor, the arm is pivotally journaled on a bearing fixed to and rotatable with a wheel, and is pivoted to a link that is in turn pivoted to a platform. Upon rotation of the wheel, the bearing rotates with the wheel and moves the arm in a substantially circular path toward and away from the conveyor so that the arm pushes the coal inwardly onto the conveyor. This assembly utilizes expensive and wearable bearings and seals that must be periodically replaced, and thereby results in frequent shut-downs in the use of the miner.
In other prior units, rotatable wheels with projecting bars at opposite sides of a conveyor for gathering coal and loading the coal onto the conveyor, have been used. Because of the structural arrangement of these projecting bars, the delivery of coal onto the conveyor is highly inefficient.